Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Looking at this big-headed, frog-mouthed bird, you might not think it an acrobat. As your parents cautioned, though, you shouldn’t judge a bird by its proportions. The dollarbird is a remarkable aerial predator, doing most of its eating on the wing. It “hawks” like a flycatcher, jumping from a perch to snatch beetles and other large insects out of the air. Descriptions of its hunting prowess are striking; the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of the World says the dollarbird’s foraging requires “strong, falcon-like flight and long, fast glides ending in dextrous twists and turns.” Although insects account for most of its diet, it will occasionally swoop down to the ground to take lizards, too.

Sometimes, when researching a bird species about which I know very little, I fall down taxonomic rabbit holes in an attempt to ensure accuracy. In the case of the dollarbird, after over two hours of reading about the bird’s systematics, I threw up my hands and accepted that its “taxonomy and nomenclature [are] somewhat confused” (Birds of the World again). As a result, the color column I’ve created represents the nominate species (the originally described population), but you could also characterize it as the most average coloration of the different populations/subspecies. As a result, the scientific binomial I’ve included is also the general “catch-all.” Moreover, females are generally described as looking just like the males, but slightly duller; poring over photos, however, that distinction didn’t always seem so obvious, so I elected to make this a male/female color column.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.